The field of the present invention is emergency equipment, and particularly, apparatus for rescue operations.
Various equipment for use in emergency rescue operations, for example, apparatus for rescuing persons from high-rise buildings in the event of fire, have been suggested. Proposals include helicopters having chairs, cages, or platforms suspended therefrom by means of ropes, slings, etc. Rescue efforts using such equipment have been seriously hampered and virtually abandoned as a result of excessive gyrations caused by rotor down-drafts, upward turbulence caused by fire and down-drafts which typically occur between high-rise buildings. Maneuverability and control are very difficult, if not impossible under these circumstances, and such rescue operations have proven highly dangerous.